Prisoners denies rape allegation

A serving prisoner at the women’s corrections facility in Suva said in evidence during a rape trial yesterday that the alleged rape did not occur.

Siteri Gade told the court in her examination in chief that the victim and the accused had come to her house which she shared with her husband, their two children, her sister-in-law and her sister-in-law’s husband and children.

The defence witness said the accused and the victim arrived at their home about 2am on September 22, 2011.

When asked by defence lawyer Jeremaia Savou on what had happened that night, Gade said she was asleep and was awoken when she heard a knock on the door.

She said when her husband opened the door, he found the accused and the victim outside.

“My husband then came back to the room where I was sleeping and told me to get up and that we were going to sleep in the sitting room because the accused and his girlfriend were to use the bedroom,” Gade said.

She said the next morning after breakfast, the victim stayed with her in the kitchen while her husband and the accused were resting under a lemon tree.

She then said that after a while, the accused called the victim into the room.

Gade described her home in court saying that their room did not have a door but a curtain.

“She did not spend a long time in the room, she just stayed for a while and then came back to me and was chatting with me while I was doing my washing outside.

“They did not stay the whole day and left around 4pm.”

In cross examination, prosecutor DPP lawyer Meli Vosawale put to the witness that the accused forcefully had sex with the victim, to which Justice Salesi Temo overruled and said the witness would have no idea because she did not see anything.